New photography by Pat Cagney captured with a digital camera.

Secretary-Press

Artist William Seay (American, active 1780s - 1810s)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1790

MediumWalnut and yellow pine

Dimensions108 1/2 x 45 x 22 1/4 in. (275.6 x 114.3 x 56.5 cm)

InscribedInlaid monogram top of cabinet: "WH" within a wreath.

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Philip S. Moore, Jr., in honor of her father, Louis Jordon Smithwick.

Object number63.90.1

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 209

DescriptionThis is a walnut secretary-cupboard. The lower doors enclose four pull-out linen shelves with original red and ivory paint. Above them is a fall-front writing drawer, and above that the slotted slide, edged with a fillet on the front. Putty was used to inlay the pinwheels and the initials WH. Original description: [Bonnet top Chippendale type butler's desk with pull-out shelf. Two door cupboard in base having four graduated sliding trays and original brasses.]

Label TextWilliam Seay American, active ca. 1780s–1810s Secretary-Press, ca. 1790 Walnut and yellow pine The cartouche in the center of this cabinet bears the carved letters “WH,” the initials of prosperous North Carolina planter Whitmell Hill (1743–1797). Around 1790 Hill commissioned Bertie County-based joiner William Seay to build and furnish a new manor house for his nearby estate Palmyra. This imposing piece shows both the vanity of its owner and the ambitions of its maker, who carved vines, scrolls, and open-work flames on the pediment in imitation of the elaborate crests atop Chippendale-style high chests from this era. These design elements brought echoes of Philadelphia and London sophistication to rural northeastern North Carolina. Gift of Mrs. Phillip S. Moore, Jr., in honor of her father, Louis Jordan Smithwick 63.90.1 ProvenanceThe Smithwick family, near Ahoskie, lower Hertford County, North Carolina; Gift of Mrs. Phillip S. Moore, Jr. in honor of her father, Louis Jordan Smithwick, to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences (later Chrysler Museum of Art), 1963. Exhibition HistoryMyers House Published ReferencesFrank L. Horton. "The work of an anonymous Carolina cabinetmaker," _The Magazine Antiques_ 101 (January 1972): 175, fig. 8. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 152, fig. 192. Thomas R. J. Newbern and James R. Melchor, _WH Cabinetmaker: A Southern Mystery Solved_, (Benton, Kentucky: Legacy Ink Publishing, 2009), 4, 71, 286. F. Carey Howlett and Kathy Z. Gillis, "Scientific Imaging Techniques and New Insights on the W.H. Cabinetmaker: A Southern Mystery Continues," _American Furniture_ (2013): 81-83.